Review: Spook Country by William Gibsom

Hollis Henry, former lead singer for The Curfew, is embarking on a new career as a journalist. She lands an assignment for a new publication called Node. The piece is to be on a relatively new form of art known as "locative art". Hollis learns that by combining GPS, wireless, and virtual reality technologies, artists can create works of art around famous landmarks or locations, an example being the Statue of Liberty.

The book also follows Tito, a member of a family of Cuban-Chinese spies for hire, who is honor bound to carry out a mission for a mysterious old man. His tasks will ultimately lead him in search of a container, the contents of which are unknown to him. Also in search of this container is an operative named Brown. He forcefully enlists the aid of Milgrim who is kept in check with the assistance of a few choice pharmaceuticals.

William Gibson delivers a captivating spy thriller while exploring various themes of the effects of technology on modern society. He clearly has knowledge of these technologies as his writing is smooth and does not misrepresent as is the case with most novels concerning technological subjects. I usually do not care for it when authors drop a lot of name brands but, in this case, Gibson does so in a manner that is descriptive of the story without being petty.

The story moves along at a brisk pace, building suspense as the various characters are brought together in a common plot line. When the pinnacle of the suspense is finally reached it is somewhat anti-climactic. Believe it or not, that is the perfect outcome for this novel. A blockbuster finale would have somehow cheapened the work that went into the themes of the book.

I really enjoyed Spook Country. This was the first novel I have read from William Gibson. In doing research, I found that some of the characters in this novel also appear in his previous novel Pattern Recognition. I believe that book will be added to my wish list.